Generally speaking, distraction procedures or distraction osteogenesis has become an important treatment vehicle for patients with craniofacial abnormalities. Today when a child or an adult suffers from a craniofacial abnormality, such as an overbite jaw or cleft palate, they may undergo a distraction osteogenesis procedure in which the surgeon cuts through certain bones of the face (often called LeFort I, II, III or Monobloc cuts) and installs a bone lengthening device (i.e., an external midface distractor) that attaches to the patient's bones on either side of the cuts. The external distractor is thereafter used to gradually separate (i.e. distract) the bone segments in order to achieve the desired new facial configuration.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a midface distractor that incorporates various individual adjustment mechanisms to allow a surgeon greater and more precise control over the ultimate distraction vector than current devices. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a midface distractor that permits a surgeon to easily and accurately alter the direction of distraction after the distraction procedure has commenced.